Ring Bros. Marketplace - The 6th Annual 1to1 Impact Award Winners

Chatham Fish and Lobster offers fresh Cape Cod seafood including fish, shellfish, live lobsters and clambakes.

Nata's Noodles offers freshly made pasta, prepared gourmet meals, delectable desserts and an extensive catering menu.

Ring Bros. Markets offers farm fresh fruit and produce, groceries, unique specialty foods, warm fresh breads, fresh squeezed orange juice, a healthy salad bar and of course our famous gourmet fruit baskets.

Spinner's Gourmet Pizza, Mexican & More!

The 6th Annual 1to1 Impact Award Winners

1to1 Magazine
January/February 2007
by John Gaffney

What Does It Take to Win?

Whether it's transforming an entire organization or implementing a new sales technology, the 2007 1to1 Impact Award Winners inspire ideas for building or breathing new life into any customer-focused organization. Read on for insight into initiatives and processes that may help you create your own winning strategy.

Ring Bros. Marketplace -- Tech Optimization: Marketing
Mobile Technology Captures Customers on the Move

It's a New England stereotype as old as the Puritans. People north of New York are cold. Parochial. Set in their ways. "Can't get theyah from heyah," goes the old saying.

But for all the iconic New England penchant for simplicity, Ring Bros. Marketplace, a one-store gourmet food market in Cape Cod, has broken the mold. They got "heyah from theyah" in a customer-centric sense by reaching beyond the regional myth of being old-fashioned. Ring Bros. earned this year's Impact Award for technology optimization in the marketing category by using a high-tech loyalty marketing solution to reach an audience that might have been stereotyped as luddites.

"I was shocked," says Ring Bros. co-owner Rich Pimentel. "I did take into consideration the reputation of our clientele as being a little old-fashioned. But this worked big time. Maybe our customers are a little younger, a bit better educated. This connected."

The connection was formed in April 2006 via mobile marketing. Many grocery stores struggle with moving loyalty initiatives beyond the point of sophisticated discounting schemes. But Ring Bros. uses mobile marketing to build loyalty by connecting with its local customers, as well as the weekenders and vacationers who live part-time on the Cape, which is largely a summer-autumn destination.

The upscale grocery store wanted to offer its customers a loyalty program that would both reward their patronage and enable Ring Bros. to communicate with customers in real time, with measurable impact. Facing the out-of-reach cost of advertising in major metropolitan newspapers, the ineffectiveness of traditional circulars, and limited budgets, it selected a solution from MobileLime to offer a customized mobile rewards program via cell phone to directly influence buying behaviors before and at the point of sale.

Customers can opt in to receive weekly emails, text messages, event-oriented alerts, specials, and savings on hundreds of items. Customers' cell phone numbers are their member numbers. Ring Bros. split its customer groups into residencies (e.g., local, Boston area, and New York), and sends mobile messages to each with different offers and event notifications based on such information as whether a customer is traveling to the Cape or is already there.

In four months 1,800 customers signed up; that number has grown at a steady 5 percent per week. Since April mobile marketing campaigns have spiked daily transactions by an average of 75 percent. Average spending per transaction among Ring Bros. non-loyalty customers is $20. That number doubles to $40 among Mobile Rewards Members. Although accounting for only 6 percent of all transactions, loyalty transactions account for 10 percent of sales revenue. "Customers like being a part of this program," says Michelle Deziel, MobileLime's senior vice president, marketing and operations. "From the retailer point of view it makes a loyalty program a one-to-one marketing vehicle."